Apr

21

Virginia Tech

April 21, 2007 |

I’ve been commenting around on Canadian blogs on the assorted commentaries about the slaughter at Virgina Tech.

A few general points:

- deadbolts - good deadbolts would have saved dozens of lives
- metal doors - a locked metal door keeps the people behind it safe
- escape methods - a roll up rope ladder would have saved lives. Hell, a decent piece of rope tied to a radiator would have saved lives.
- training - every person who is attending a school of any sort (and who is in a likely to be targeted building of any sort) should receive a basic training as to what to do if they hear gun fire. Lock the door, pile up the furniture figure out how to get out of the area.
- advanced training - basic take down strategies. Three guys beside the door to jump the attacker with the rest of the class piling on.

My point being that there is no reason that 32 innocent people needed to die. But, and here is the hard thing, preparation requires that we actually acknowledge the possibility of evil and train ourselves and our children to deal with it. That, I’m afraid, contradicts the happy chat view of the world which our universities and, indeed, our governments seem intent on propagating.


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. KevinG on April 23, 2007 10:46 pm

    You’ve listed a number of low cots common sense things to do that seem likely to help in cases like this. I expect that we’ll see mandatory this and that as a result. I’m not sure many people would argue against deadbolts and metal doors.

    I think you’re wrong about the “happy chat view of the world”. I think it’s nearly the opposite. Everyone clamors on about the risks of everything and the demand for a risk-free society seems insatiable.

    Isn’t it the style of solution that most people advocate — delegating more authority to the government to ban guns on this basis or increase their authority to lock people up for what they might do — that bothers you and not some unacknowledged recognition that bad things happen?

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